Tyler Paxton, left, and Reid Tatoris, both 31, are the cofounders of Are You a Human, a Detroit tech company, in the M@dison Building in downtown Detroit.

Written by

Frank Witsil
Detroit Free Press Business Writer

Tyler Paxton and Reid Tatoris - cofounders of a tech company with an intriguing name, Are You a Human - are business school classmates who have built a business on a simple idea: How to make Internet experiences less annoying.

You know the ones, those seemingly random and wavy letter number combos that Web users are required to type in before registering or shopping online to prove you are not a bot, but a human.

Instead, they developed an alternate authentication method: A plug-in that has users play a little game. If you are selling pizza, for example, the plug-in might ask you to pick toppings ...